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Thug Life: All in the Game
All in the Game
USA 2011
produced by Gary Ugarek, Jim Heffernan (executive), Nelson Irizarry (executive), Daniel Ross (executive) for Wetnwildradio Films, Team Game Productions
directed by Gary Ugarek
starring Micaiah Jones, Chris Clanton, Kelvin Page, Nelson Irizarry, Mike McMullin, Daniel Ross, Kim Hoang, Manuel Poblete, Ron Bush, Joseph D.Durbin, Dominique Spencer, Ashlea Hogan, Gary Ugarek, Ryan Braxton, Kristen Thomas
written by Gary Ugarek, music by Lawrence Atkinson, Dre Babes, M.E.C.C.A., Saint Anger, Four-In
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Everybody wants to be a gangster these days, especially if he's living
on welfare in the poorer neighbourhoods of East Baltimore of course. So
everybody's in a gang (which mostly means selling crack on streetcorners),
and everybody boasts about it - much to the dismay of Ontario Banks
(Nelson Irizarry), a small-fry gangleader who actually wants to go places
and has the talent to do so ... but most of his over-confident but useless
gangmembers are more of a burden than a help. But Ontario has got big
ideas, he wants to take over Little Italy, so he gathers the few people in
his outfit he thinks he can trust (Micaiah Jones, Chris Clanton, Kelvin
Page), and first they shake things up a bit before moving in for the big
fish, Caprisci (Michael McMullin), an old school gangster with a
well-oiled organisation. Now sure, Ontario and friends will never get
his hands on Caprisci directly, he's much to cautious a man for that, but
his son Nicki (Daniel Ross) is a bit of a black sheep, inasmuch as he
likes drugs and whores a bit too much for his own good - and eventually,
Ontario and friends take him hostage, then lure poppa Caprisci into their
lion's den. It could have all gone sooo well, too ...
Click
here to open the Spoiler Pop-up!
Thug Life: All in the Game is a film that doesn't
glamourize the gangster lifestyle like probably too many other films, but
takes the gangster as such back to street level, where only the minority
ever rise up from (nor do the guys in the film, actually, despite their
best efforts). That doesn't mean though that the film isn't stylish
despite everything: Its intentionally unsteady, nervous, even bumpy
camerawork perfectly mirrors the distracted overall situation, its
slightly over-saturated black-and-white imagery add to the film's mood
caught between big dreams and stark reality, and its authentic run-down
locations are nothing short of perfect. Pretty good, actually. Exactly
what a modern gangster movie's supposed to look and feel like!
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